Following on that thought...If I were to be asked by someone (say, the DMV), for a copy of my b.c., and I gave them a URL for where they could view an image of my b.c., there is a zero percent chance that they would accept that on "face value."
The birth certificate is secondary, but still important because as we've learned, it was legal for a baby born anywhere in the world to be eligible to apply for a HI birth certificate. It would help to establish weather or not he's a "citizen."
The bottom line remains, born in HI or born somewhere else, he was born a subject of the British crown. And that, is no nonsense.
What would you need to get a passport?